The Ligeti Project György Ligeti Teldec Classics, 2003   Reviewed by Pedro Blas Gonzalez	The micropolyphonic "Lontano," György Ligeti's mesmerizing static orchestral piece, captivates the imagination due to the heightened sense of expectation that its lack of transition creates. In some respects, most of Ligeti's compositions can be viewed as musical negations. That is, as a refusal to construct traditional tonal music. In this regard, Ligeti's work might also be called "pre-musical." Because a large number of his atonal, asymmetrical and discordant compositions cannot readily be isolated into movements, one becomes attuned to anticipation within the structure of any given piece. Ligeti's work can be viewed as symbolic of a pre-musical grasp of silence; a silence that is meant to be seen rather than heard. His is a taciturn look toward the stillness of form, and how this is pierced by spaces replete with sound. The dissonant qualities of his compositions may lack a center, as he readily admits, but they are reminiscent, if not altogether intuitive of form. The four volumes that comprise The Ligeti Project are recorded by different ensembles and orchestras and are separated into the following: Volume I, "Melodien," one of his numerous single movement pieces; "Chamber Concerto;" "Piano Concerto" and "Mysteries of the Macabre," a work for solo trumpet and chamber orchestra that is part of his opera, "Le Grand Macabre." Volume II without a doubt contains Ligeti's best known pieces including: "Lontano;" "Atmospheres," a piece that was made widely known through its inclusion in Stanley Kubrick's science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey; "Apparitions;" "San Francisco Polyphony" and "Concert Romanesc." Volume III consists of "Cello Concerto;" "Clocks" and "Clouds," a work for 12 female voices that takes its inspiration from an essay on the philosophy of science by Karl Popper; "Violin Concerto" and "Sippal," "Dobbal," "Nadihegeduvel." Volume IV includes "Hamburg Concerto (horn concerto);" "Double Concerto;" "Ramifications," which is written for 12 solo strings and "Requiem," a composition that was inspired by the apocalyptic paintings of Pieter Brueghel the Elder and Hieronymous Bosch and which is scored for two solo voices, soprano and mezzo-soprano. Ligeti, who was born in 1923, is classified as belonging to the classical avant-garde. As correct as this moniker may be, it nevertheless cannot be wholly understood without a historical disclaimer. Ligeti explains that his isolation from the West due to his misfortune of living in a Stalinist regime forced him to become innovative. The avant-garde qualities of Ligeti's music are immersed in a much wider approach to classical music that might seem obvious upon first encountering his work. His reaction to Schoenberg's highly ordered notion of atonality known as Serialism -- or what is also referred to as 12-note music -- allowed Ligeti the freedom to explore what would become his highly individualistic style. But music, like writing or painting, is created by individual subjects, not collective notions such as schools or movements. The subjective and autonomous vision of a work of art does not necessarily have to culminate in originality. Instead this is often manifested as innovation. Hence, the classical avant-garde re-directs the impulse of modernism in this case, and in so doing creates a continuous historical dialectic of renovation. The significance of this process then becomes enmeshed in a broader historical and metaphysical view of any given field. But what is most important in this process is not a self-conscious effort that is bent on negating the past, but rather a vital necessity to extend it into the future. Equally important to Ligeti's development as a composer was his chastisement by the Stalinist apparatchiks responsible for the arts who banned his music. Thus it was after this initial state sponsored invective that he began to write, he tells us, "Music that was radically dissonant and chromatic." Ligeti writes that under Stalin's dictatorship, folk music was only allowed on the condition that its presentation conform to a "politically correct" form or, as he goes on to say: "It was forced into the straitjacket of the norms of socialist realism." It is during the years of 1955 to 1956, while living in Budapest, that he began to write what he calls "black music." Ligeti regards his compositions from this period as being works that were written for the "bottom drawer" given that there was no chance that they would be performed in public. As vulgar as these attacks by the totalitarian state were, they do seem to signal a resonant cord of "having arrived" as a creative talent. One fine example of this is Shostakovich's contention that the most memorable day of his life was when, in 1936 he was denounced in the pages of Pravda for the seeming sexual connotations of his opera "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk." As one would expect, Ligeti's compositions from this dark time are not examples of a sunny musical temperament. Of this ominous period he writes: "People living in the West cannot begin to imagine what it was like in the Soviet empire, where art and culture were strictly regulated as a matter of course -- they had to conform to abstract concepts that were almost identical to the regulations of the National Socialists. Art had to be 'healthy' and 'edifying' and had to come 'from the people.' In short, it had to reflect Party directives." It is also around this time that he became moved by reading Theodor Adorno's book Philosophy of New Music. Yet another central development in his compositional disposition was his introduction to electronic music in Vienna under the tutelage of Gottfried Michael Koenig and later while studying with Karlheinz Stockhausen while the latter composer completed "Gruppen" Ligeti's austere individualism is a preeminent quality of his work. While the discord found in most of his static compositions seems to negate all possibility of harmony, there is a profound tone in his music that seeks what can be regarded as a centerless form. His work is evocative of a subjective synaesthetic where the composer attempts to objectify his vision through diverse tones, or vibrant hues that are not easily conveyed by any pre-established sense of musical harmony. Stockhausen, too, refers to his Complete Piano Music (Klavierstuck I-X) as "my drawings." When asked what audience he wrote for Ligeti merely explains: "I did not write for anyone, but simply for the sake of the music itself, from an inner need." This is not a question that he had the luxury to entertain given his residence behind the Iron Curtain. His work has the same power to create visual images as perhaps that of listening to a drama on the radio. "Apparitions," for instance, is a fine example of a static composition that "develops" in a starker manner than works that employ a clear cut sense of transition. "San Francisco Polyphony" depicts a greater variation of contrasts, where the overall depth of the work seems more symphonic in character. In some respects, Ligeti's compositions are best appropriated as a whole, allowing for the different moods to come through. Atmospheres serves as an extreme pole of Ligeti's work, conveying visions of a sustained ethereal motion. In contrast to "Atmospheres," "Concert Romanesc" is a dynamic and culturally vital work, at times reminiscent of a gypsy lament, at others the horns remind one of the melody of Ravel's "Bolero." "Melodien" is also a single movement work that employs the celesta, glockenspiel and crotales. This piece is another singular example of a Ligeti composition that has what he calls "blurred transitions." It is also a good representative of the inherent temper of Ligeti's work, but unlike "Atmospheres" it is infused with more drama, intrigue and development before it quietly fades. "Mysteries of the Macabre" does not convey the level of grimness that its title may suggest. During the first four minutes of this piece, the solo trumpet and cascading orchestral accompaniment lend it a mood that is well fitted to describe the chill in night time scenes of what can be envisioned as "opera noir." This is the type of music that under the right circumstances a young child can easily baptize as "terror music." "Cello Concerto" is an attractive piece primarily because it is a dual movement work that, unlike his other static works showcases a more melodic transition. The Hamburg Concerto (Horn Concerto) dates from 2002. Its second movement is a jazzy, melodic and rhythmic composition that seems like an anomaly in Ligeti's work, even though the somber and eerie timbre of the horns proves to be a Ligeti staple. In "Requiem" Ligeti attempts a depiction of the Last Judgment by utilizing segments from the Latin Mass. The chorus consists of at least 100 singers. The effect of these many voices coupled with Ligeti's characteristic orchestral humming effect is no less than spectacular. After an initial "summing forth" of the dead in the penultimate movement, the piece tapers off into a translucent fugue that quietly dissipates into silence. | June 2004   Pedro Blas Gonzalez is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Barry University in Miami, Florida. Amongst his intellectual pursuits is his interest in the relationship that exists between subjectivity, self-autonomy and philosophy.	Equally important to Ligeti's development as a composer was his chastisement by the Stalinist apparatchiks responsible for the arts who banned his music. Thus it was after this initial state sponsored invective that he began to write, he tells us, "Music that was radically dissonant and chromatic."